Dave Bakke: Injuries won’t stop Thanksgiving dinner

Wednesday

Nov 26, 2008 at 12:01 AMNov 26, 2008 at 4:07 AM

It seems as though if someone were going to cook a Thanksgiving dinner for someone who needs it in Waverly, the dinner would be made for Mayor Ernie Cleveland. Ernie was seriously hurt this fall in a harvesting accident. His legs were crushed when he was pinned between a wall and a John Deere tractor. He is temporarily in a wheelchair, unable to stand per doctor’s orders, while he recovers.

Dave Bakke

It seems as though if someone were going to cook a Thanksgiving dinner for someone who needs it in Waverly, the dinner would be made for Mayor Ernie Cleveland.

Ernie was seriously hurt this fall in a harvesting accident. His legs were crushed when he was pinned between a wall and a John Deere tractor. He is temporarily in a wheelchair, unable to stand per doctor’s orders, while he recovers.

But Ernie is spunky, you have to give him that. That is why it is the other way around. Ernie and his wife, Marcia, are making Thanksgiving dinner for Waverly.

“Our kids are grown,” Ernie said, “and so we thought anyone who didn’t have anywhere else to go, we’d fix dinner for them.”

About 20 people signed up for the turkey and trimmings the Clevelands will cook on Thursday.
But Ernie, you can’t even stand up. How is this going to work?

“Well,” he laughs, “I got a chair. I can move around pretty quick in that. If it’s just stuff on the stove that needs to be stirred, I can do that. But somebody else is going to have to look over the top of the pans. I can’t do that.”

Waverly Ald. Joe Bostic said the pans will have to be down pretty low for Ernie to get to them. Joe figures that Marcia will do most of the cooking anyway — and that’s a good thing in his book.

“She’s a good cook, I’ll say that,” he reports. He did not comment on the mayor’s cooking ability.

The Clevelands operate Waverly’s only breakfast option, at Basket O’ Goodies. Basket is a combination gift shop/restaurant and the only game in town for dinner on Monday and Tuesday nights when the town’s other restaurant, Verda Mae’s, is closed. The free Thanksgiving dinner will be at Basket O’ Goodies.

“We decided since we didn’t have our customer appreciation day this year,” Ernie said, “we’d do this.

“There are lots of elderly folks who don’t have anywhere to go and nobody to do things with. They ought to have some kind of cheer for the holidays, so we thought we’d put in our two cents’ worth.”

Until his accident, Ernie worked at Johnson Grain east of Waverly. Bob Johnson said fixing this Thanksgiving dinner for people is typical of Ernie and Marcia.

“Under the circumstances, I think it’s just wonderful,” Bob said. “(Ernie) will be there doing what he can.”

Bob said that when the Last Chance restaurant closed in Waverly a couple of years ago, it left people without a place to meet. So Marcia and Ernie stepped up and got Basket O’ Goodies going so people could get together again.

“All of us at Johnson Grain sure do miss him,” Bob said of Ernie. “He has the most wonderful attitude. It doesn’t matter how bad things go, Ernie’s always got a smile or chuckle. He’s that kind of guy.”

The spirit of Thanksgiving is to overlook life’s troubles for a while and give thanks for the blessings of life. That doesn’t change when, like Ernie, you have had a tough autumn.
“I’m a lot luckier than most,” he said.